~ a journal

Ayurveda and running

Breathing through the nose while running leads to a lot of snot. Since the time I started exhaling exclusively though the nose, I just had a lot of stuff in my nose. I needed to carry a napkin to keep it clear. Then I tried something called “nasya” in Ayurveda. In a nutshell, it is massaging a little bit of ghee (clarified butter) inside the nostrils and sniffing it in. Just a little thing really but it made a great deal of difference. There was very little congestion in the nose.

I try to follow the Ayurvedic seasonal routine as much as I can and it has made a difference. Although the temperatures are close to 40°C, I don’t feel the fatigue of the heat as much. A lot of suggestions came from my yoga teacher, others I picked up from a book on Ayurveda and some from my mother in law.

Some of the things I follow are

– Having a spoon of white butter with a little rock candy.
– Spicing buttermilk with salt, jeera(cumin) powder, a pinch of pepper and some fresh coriander leaves
– Using soaked sabza(holy basil seeds) in fresh drinks or milk.
– Eating raisins soaked overnight.
– Veggies like methi(fenugreek), beetroots, gourds, cucumbers
– Muskmelons and watermelons although they come with a rider ‘Eat them alone or leave them alone’
– Tender coconut water
– Lahya(kind of puffed rice) water. This is said to be an Ayurvedic equivalent of electral.
– Cool not cold or chilled water/beverages. In summers I generally put some khus roots wrapped in muslin in the matka (earthen pot) and the water is fragrant as well as cool.
– A little coconut oil on the scalp and the soles of the feet at bedtime.
– Coconut oil for cooking
– Forward bends in asanas